All Forum Posts by: Michael Mohan

Understood. I appreciate the advice Christopher. Yes, homes are selling for pretty much market value, in my opinion. My takeaway from the responses are to buy a house we like as long as we plan to stay in it for substantial amount of time. I think my eagerness to apply the real estate investment principles that I'm learning are not applicable to my situation.

Yes, that is one of the agreements between my wife and I. When we buy our house the plan is to stay in it for at least ten years. If the market is down during those years we would stick it out unless extraordinary circumstances present themselves. So, the area is good enough to raise children in. I appreciate your responses Phillip. 

Sorry for the delay and thank you for the response. 

Yes, Phillip, the house would be our primary residence. We are open and looking for a house with mostly cosmetic renovations (flooring, painting, new fixtures, etc.) We would like to buy a house within the next few months but not in a huge rush even though prices have been increasing since we started looking.

Marian, we don't actually plan to rent it in the future. I meant that if worse came to worse and we needed to rent it, then it would cash flow. My apologies for not making that clear. I do like your suggestion, but we have noticed the beginner homes in Vegas, $250k-$300k, are over priced because the demand is high in that price range. 

Just to clarify we originally were looking for 10-20% below market value but had to lower our standards to 5-10% under market value. Then, the homes sold for 3-5% over our final offer price. Leaving in my opinion a very slim margin or the home to sell at market value. 

We started looking a few months ago and have seen the supply stay incredibly low and prices continue to rise due to the demand. Yes, we could have purchased much more home a few months ago for the same dollar amount.  

Good morning Bigger Pockets. I am new to the site and podcast. I have listened to about 30 or so Bigger Pockets podcasts and read investing books such as The Millionaire Real Estate Investor and Hold over the past two month. My goal is to read a real estate book a month. 

So, my wife and I are looking to buy our first home, in the Las Vegas market, specifically 89143, 89131, 89084 or less preferred zip codes of 89033 and 89149. Our housing criteria is below. We are able to find single family homes at what we believe are slightly under market value, but none of our offers have been accepted. The houses have sold for about 3-5% over our offers. 

Two Questions:

1. Any advice for someone looking for a single family home to live in? Things I should be considering that I am not.

2. Should we be looking for a property that cash flows? I have run, my understanding of, the numbers and have not found a single family house matching our criteria that would cash flow. If so, I feel like we are buying strictly for appreciation and obviously to not pay rent anymore. As a newbie am I taking the wrong approach?

Criteria

Single family home
Great/safe Location (zip codes above)
Below market value (10-20%)--not sure if this is attainable/realistic. We have not been able to locate such properties. We have lowered our standards to 5-10% under market value
Price (max 350K including reno costs)
Price on the lower half of the neighborhood ("Chevy in a Cadillac neighborhood" is the goal)
Max 4 bedroom 3 bath.
No more than 3,000 sq ft.
Open floor concept or potential for one (potential for a large kitchen/large kitchen)
2 car garage
Backyard

No major renovations needed (looking for minor renovations such as new flooring, paint, new countertops, poor landscaping, )

We are interested in Centennial Hills, Northwest area. Maybe NLV--Aliante region. 

Thank you in advance.

Michael